If Capello's task as England manager was tough, then the Russia job will be near impossible

When the Russian Football Union (RFU) published its list of 13 candidates for the post of new national team coach, its announcement was met by near-unanimous bemusement. Whilst it had been widely anticipated that the union was due to release a shortlist, it was at least expected to be, well, short.

The draft, as it turned out, was an eclectic one: Rafa Benitez, Marcelo Bielsa, Anatoly Byshovets, Valery Gazzaev, Pep Guardiola, Fabio Capello, Andrey Kobelev, Yury Krasnozhan, Marcello Lippi, Valery Nepomnyashchy, Nikolay Pisarev, Harry Redknapp and Yury Semin.
The immediate feeling was just how diverse it was: pragmatists alongside purists, extroverts next to introverts. The list read like an admission from the RFU that it simply did not have a clue what type of coach to plump for..
Gazzaev, the former CSKA coach who was considered amongst the favourites for the role, was unequivocal in his view of the situation. “Imagine how they are laughing at us in Europe,” he said. “I feel very uncomfortable for myself and the well-known people mentioned on the list, which was posted only to cause unneeded controversy.”
Gazzaev’s candid attack would normally render him out of the running, but his comments were so representative of the overall zeitgeist that he remained a leading candidate.
Sovetsky Sport columnist Evgeny Lovchev was even less sympathetic. “There are two scenarios about the appearance of the list of 13,” he said. “The first version is that they lie to us once again as they traditionally do, treating the fans as fools. The second version is that the list on RFU’s website was put together by a mad [drunk] man. Respected coaches won’t go to this circus, chaos and psychiatric hospital.”
Such clumsy PR would cause controversy in most countries. But Russia’s current circumstances make the need for the correct appointment all the more pressing.